Another year of GCSE results has prompted another bout of soul searching about the underachievement of white working class pupils. No lesser figure than Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has led the mourning this week, risking the ire of her colleagues with some bravery.

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Yet the grim truth is that this is not, ultimately, an education issue. Plenty of children in exactly the same schools will do just fine: same facilities, same teachers, same exam papers, better results. Nor is it a poverty issue as we are so often told – some ethnic groups on Free School Meals don’t just do better than their poor white peers, they do far better than even the average. And the idea that skin colour itse

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